Internet use has become ubiquitous among American teens, but how
many parents know exactly what their kids spend all those online
hours doing? The latest Gallup Youth Survey* asked heavy Internet
users -- kids aged 13 to 17 who said they spend five hours or more
a week on the Internet -- what sorts of things were keeping them
occupied.
Overall, about 3 in 10 teens (30%) said they spent five or more
hours per week online. Of those who spend five or more hours a week
online, almost all -- 96% -- said that they used the Internet for
sending and receiving e-mail. The same percentage (96%) also said
they used the Internet for finding information. A large percentage
(87%) said they used an instant messaging service to chat with
friends and a sizable proportion used the Internet for downloading
music (73%). Less common activities included visiting with people
they don't know in chat rooms (39%) and shopping (31%), which came
in last among activities that teens were asked explicitly
about.
When these teens were asked what else they use the Internet for,
the most frequently volunteered item was games, mentioned by 18%.
Homework was volunteered by 14% of teens who used the Internet for
at least five hours.
How do the online behaviors of teens who are online five or more
hours a week differ from those of the overall sample of teens? As
the graph shows, the big differences show up when it comes to
downloading music -- less than half (48%) of teens overall said
they do so, compared with 73% of teens who heavily use the
Internet. A second big difference concerns chatting with friends
using an instant messaging service -- done by 65% of teens overall,
but by 87% of heavy Internet users.
*The Gallup Youth Survey is conducted via an Internet
methodology provided by Knowledge Networks, using an online
research panel that is designed to be representative of the entire
U.S. population. The current questionnaire was completed by 1,200
respondents, aged 13 to 17, between Jan. 23-Feb. 10, 2003. For
results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence
that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3%. For a
complete description of the sampling and weighting procedures used
to conduct the survey, click here.
